I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
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Hundreds of millions of dollars remain unspent on thousands of brick-and-mortar projects the Legislature has approved in recent years. How much of that cash should be used to address the budget shortfall hasn’t yet emerged as a flashpoint between negotiators for Gov. Bill Richardson and the Legislature as they try to reach a deal. But given recent history, it may well flare up.
The Richardson administration and state lawmakers have previously squared off on this subject, most recently in advance of this year’s regular legislative session. And with a projected mid-year $440 million budgetary shortfall that some lawmakers are predicting may grow to $550 million, unspent “capital-outlay” money — sometimes called “pork” — is again a part of the mix.
If the clash doesn’t come over how much money to “claw back,” the conflict may well arise over whose “ox gets gored,” as Capitol insiders waggishly put it: the governor’s capital outlay, state agencies’ or lawmakers’ projects.
Richardson has used the unfinished projects as a way to argue against making deeper cuts across state government than the 3 percent he’s suggested cutting from state agencies. Top lawmakers in the negotiations say deeper cuts will be needed, perhaps 5 percent to 6 percent.
“Let’s not make drastic cuts that hurt people. Let’s cut pork, let’s not cut people,” Richardson said Sept. 11 during an appearance at the New Mexico State Fair.
He added, “Let’s cut capital outlay. There’s about $1 billion that isn’t being used.”
Top lawmakers already acknowledge that such unspent money will play a role in closing this year’s shortfall.
A quarterly report from the Legislative Finance Committee, released in July, found that roughly $379 million of money appropriated for brick-and-mortar projects was unspent for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006. The total of unspent money for such projects tops $1.3 billion when factoring in fiscal 2007 and 2008, the report shows.
“I think we’ve identified $120 million in general fund money,” Sen. John Arthur Smith, a Deming Democrat who is chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said on Friday.
The general fund is the state’s main account. The state uses several types of revenue to pay for capital outlay, including the general fund.
“We think there’s probably $250 million in general fund money that we might be able to use,” Smith added.
State lawmakers are currently examining projects funded in 2003 and 2008 that have a portion of their budgets unspent. Occasionally these unspent balances occur when the Legislature appropriates only enough money to pay a portion of the total cost, and state lawmakers don’t follow up with more appropriations; sometimes lawmakers ask for money for local projects that local governments don’t see as priorities.
Already tough questions are being raised as to what projects to cut, and where, Smith said.
Many state lawmakers say that such projects produce jobs, and cutting them would be tantamount to hurting the economy.
But regional politics may become an issue.
“There are parts of that state suffering more than others,” Smith said. “But their projects may not be shovel-ready. Can that money be transferred to other projects in other parts of the state? We have a lot of questions.”
Such questions are not abstract for state lawmakers. Some view brick-and-mortar projects as an election-year calling card, as a way at re-election time to say to constituents, “Look at what I’ve done for you,” insiders say.
It’s why many state lawmakers wait on pins and needles every legislative session to see how many of their projects make it onto the omnibus capital bill.
House lawmakers are up for re-election in 2009.
